The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a state can maintain its sovereign immunity from lawsuits in other states, reversing a prior decision from the high court.

In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the courtís conservative justices found that a state cannot be sued by a private party in another state court system without that state's consent. The ruling overturns a previous 1979 decision that found the Constitution does not shield the states from private lawsuits in other states.

Thomas wrote that the previous ruling "misreads the historical record and misapprehends the 'implicit ordering of relationships within the federal system necessary to make the Constitution a workable governing charter and to give each provision within that document the full effect intended by the Framers.'"

He said the past precedent is "irreconcilable with our constitutional structure and with the historical evidence" showing that states have immunity from the private lawsuits....

Edmund Burke: "In vain you tell me that Artificial Government is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the Abuse!"

In 1992, the Supreme Court looked poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case protecting abortion rights. They didnít, however, and the main reason was respect for precedentóspecifically, the legal doctrine known as stare decisis, or ďlet the decision stand.Ē

Would it do the same today, with over 250 laws meant to test the case pending in states across the country?

An otherwise obscure case decided this week, Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt, suggests that a majority of the court would not.

Hyatt was, in large part, about stare decisis.... This week, the court overruled its 1979 decision by a vote of 5-4 and tossed out Hyattís claim.

...What was surprising is that stare decisis warranted only 318 words in Justice Thomasí opinion, almost like an afterthought, and that Justice Thomas summarily waved away this important judicial doctrine.

If this is how the courtís conservatives treat sovereign immunity, how will they treat abortion rights?...

Edmund Burke: "In vain you tell me that Artificial Government is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the Abuse!"